Jury trial set for Pendergest-Holt

HOUSTON, Texas – Baldwyn’s Laura Pendergest-Holt is scheduled to go on trial July 20 in Texas to answer charges she conspired and obstructed justice in the federal investigation of Stanford Financial Group.
Last week, Pendergest-Holt pleaded not guilty to the two counts in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Texas.
The court estimates her trial will take two weeks. Other deadlines were scheduled in the order, including a pre-trial conference for July 13.
The Stanford chief investment officer remains free on $300,000 bond as she awaits the Houston trial.
Handwritten on her initial appearance hearing minutes is a note that her $30,000 bond deposit will come from the bond she posted in Dallas in late February after she was accused in a complaint by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC also has accused SFG’s president, Richard Allen Stanford, CEO James Davis of Baldwyn and other top executives of conducting an $8 billion fraud by advising clients to buy certificates of deposit at the Antigua-based Stanford International Bank.
If convicted on both counts, Pendergest-Holt faces up to 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.
She also asked the U.S. magistrate presiding over her case to remove the electronic monitor she’s been wearing since her arrest in Houston.
In her motion, Pendergest-Holt says things have changed since she began wearing the electronic monitor, especially the determination she does not have access to a $160 million bank account.
She also said because her assets were frozen, she can’t pay the monitor bill and it’s going to Stanford’s receiver.
So, she requested the court to remove the monitor and change its ruling “to more accurately reflect the least restrictive conditions of release” that will ensure her court appearances.
Contact Patsy R. Brumfield at (662) 678-1596 or patsy.brumfield@djournal.com.